


Winner Takes All

by distractionpie



Series: EreJean Week 2020 [6]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Conventions, Gaming, Kissing, M/M, Rivals to ???, flirt fighting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-04
Updated: 2020-04-04
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:20:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23476108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/distractionpie/pseuds/distractionpie
Summary: Jean and Eren have been PvP rivals in Underground: Nitros Nights for years.Both attending the same con in cosplay as their icons from the game? Completely unplanned.That those characters were each half of story-mode's most popular ship? Completely unexpected.Chickening out at their fellow fans asking them to take photos in character? Completely unacceptable.
Relationships: Jean Kirstein/Eren Yeager
Series: EreJean Week 2020 [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1681744
Comments: 4
Kudos: 64





	Winner Takes All

South Eldia Winner Takes All gaming convention.

Jean had spent the six months before tickets went on sale saving up for a weekend pass, and the three months in between getting his confirmation email and the big weekend working on his costume.

Not that he would ever admit it, but his mom had been a massive help with all the sewing involved.

If she made him stuff like this most often instead of gaudy sweaters, they’d probably argue far less about his lack of appreciation for homemade clothing gifts. Then again, he’d probably look ridiculous, wearing head to toe blue and gold pleather anywhere outside of a convention. Here, however, there are plenty of people in far weird outfits than an imitation racing jumpsuit, and _Underground: Nitros Nights_ is a popular enough game at its peak that he’s confident he’s going to get recognised as a Blue Lightning cosplayer, even though he doesn’t have the iconic helmet, having weighed it up and decided that since convention centre rules would have meant he could only wear it for photos not walking around, it would just be an inconvenience.

Perhaps going as his gamer-avatar is a bit cheesy, but it’s not like anybody here is going to know that’s why he picked the character, he’s come alone since Connie had family obligations and Sasha couldn’t afford a ticket and while Marco probably would have come if Jean had felt awkward being here alone he didn’t have enough of a passion for gaming that he would have enjoyed it.

But Jean doesn’t mind being alone. And really, he isn’t. He’s surrounded by his people, strangers from half the country who understand his passions and are ready to play. He’s planning to get seats to see a few panels tomorrow, but today is all about the main hall: there are dozens of demos going on, giving him the chance to play levels from next seasons games or challenge a pro, plus stalls of artists, and more experienced cosplayers putting on skits.

Everything is perfect and—

“Oh no, not you.”

Jean turns at the words and he recognises the character in an instant, Kent ‘Kamikaze’ Kingston, another character from _UNN_ , mostly familiar to Jean as Eren’s chosen avatar, but it takes several moments longer to place the voice and realise they’ve had the same idea.

Eren is at the con, and dressed as his avatar too.

Jean has played on a natural resemblance to the character, that’s part of the reason he’d picked Blue as his avatar, but Eren doesn’t have much naturally in common with Kent and he’s almost unrecognisable in dark contacts and with his hair slicked back instead of tousled around his face. It is, Jean grudgingly admits, a well put together costume — although Jean’s is better because he’d had to make stuff whereas Kent’s outfit is a simpler though artful combination of street clothes — in enough layers that Eren is going to be crazy sweaty by the time the con is over.

“What are you doing here?” he asks, but he already knows. One of the main reasons he’s been so excited is that he’s heard rumours the first previews on _UNN2_ ’s new gameplay will be shared at tomorrows panel, and of course Eren would want to be there - _UNN_ is a b-tier game and the player base isn’t huge, but it supports cross-console PVP and therefore barely a week goes by without JaegerDanger835 and kirschtfine going head to head. “Urgh! Really, not only do you get into my favourite game,” although admittedly it probably wouldn’t have held Jean’s interest as long as it has if it didn’t offer the option to kick Eren’s ass. “Now you have to ruin the con too?”

“I got into _your_ favourite game? I had it first!”

Jean rolls his eyes. “But you suck at it.”

“I’m ranked Silver!”

“Yeah because I have better things to do that play randos all day for league points, but I beat you practically every time so I guess that makes me ranked gold.”

“Only the top thousand players get gold ranked,” Eren argues, as if Jean doesn’t already know that. “And you do not. You hardly ever beat me and, when you do, it’s because you cheat.”

“How could I possibly cheat? It’s not like I have hacks or something.” If they played in person there might be ways to distract Eren, but online the worst thing he could do was make distracting comments and honestly thinking of ways to get the best reaction from Eren took enough effort that, if anything, Eren was the one with the advantage because Jean’s mind wasn’t fully on the races.

“You use wiles,” Eren mutters, and Jean reaches up to pinch at his brow. He’s paid too much for these tickets to let Eren ruin the experience for him, but—

“Oh my god, are you two together? That’s so cool! Lindsay, come check these guys out!”

—their bickering is cut off by a girl in a UNN t-shirt grinning at them and waving her friend over.

While making a ridiculous accusation.

Planning to match costumes with Eren? The only way Jean would have done that deliberately was if he’d found out what Eren was planning in advance, and made sure his version was better. The current situation is entirely a coincidence, and an unfortunate one at that.

“Actually we—”

“We just—”

“Group cosplays are the best, right?” The force of Jean and Eren’s combined righteous indignation at being mistaken for having acted cooperatively is nothing in the face of this girl’s sheer enthusiasm. “Can I get a picture? It’s just, your costumes are so good. You’re the most realistic looking Blue and Kent I’ve ever seen at a con, you must have worked really hard.”

Is that was it feels like to be famous? Because Jean could get used to this. Although his costume could be appreciated just as well without involving Eren.

“We’d be perfectly charmed,” Eren says for both of them, flinging an arm over Jean’s shoulder and it’s all Jean can do not to gape at him because he’s doing a freakishly good impression of Kent Kingston’s voice actor, speech patterns and accent on point.

The girls jaw drops. “Are you in character? Oh wow, this is the best day ever! Blue King is my OTP.”

OTP? Isn’t that some sort of shipping thing? That flavour of fan behaviour is more Marco’s cup of tea than Jean’s, his best friend has a not-so-secret blog devoted to characters from the dramas he watches that he believes ought to end up together, but beyond what Marco has occasionally shared Jean doesn’t know much about it, especially not how it related to _UNN_. His and Eren’s avatars had come from story-mode characters, but Jean had blasted through the main campaign in days after getting the game, only interested insofar as what it unlocked for the sandbox and, most importantly, multi-player modes. He remembers their characters being on the same team, but the game wasn’t exactly from a genre that was heavy on the love plots. Other than the boring main story guy having some fan-service girlfriend he couldn’t remember anything that would explain shipping.

The look on this girl’s face and her friend’s wide-eyed delight tell him there’s evidentially something he’s missed.

There’s no time to ask them about it though, because Eren is pulling him closer, into an imitation of their character’s victory pose.

“Smile for the camera, Jean-boy,” Eren mutters, low enough the girls won’t hear. “Gotta give the girls what they want, I know you don’t know much about that, but I’ve got this.”

Oh. Oh, he wants it like that, does he? Well, no way is Jean getting outclassed or dragged around Eren, if Eren is ready to play then Jean’s got game.

Eren’s giving them canon, but if it’s OTP they want…

Jean turns, grabbing Eren’s free hand and pulling it to Jean’s other shoulder.

Dipping somebody who isn’t cooperative is harder than the movies make it look, Eren doesn’t really bend when Jean grabs his waist and leans over, so Jean has to give him a little shove to get him into a properly romantic pose.

But beside them one of the girls lets out a high pitched noise of delight.

Jean smirks. And here Eren though Jean wouldn’t know how to impress those girls.

He waits a moment for them to line up their cameras, hoping Eren won’t push him away before they get their shot, but Eren’s eyes dart over to the girls and he smirks right back.

It’s the same smirk Jean has seen a hundred times before, always right before Eren gets them both into trouble.

Eren uses his new grip on Jean’s shoulders to pull.

It takes everything Jean has to shift his weight and bend rather than let Eren topple them both to the ground but that’s the last thing he can focus on before there are shrieks and a camera flash and ‘oh my god I love these guys’ and Eren’s lips against his, Eren’s hands clutching at him, Eren’s breathless gasp that has Jean parting his lips in instinctive response ready to—

“Thank you!” one of the girls says, and they break apart. “Oh my god, these pictures are amazing! You’re fine with me putting them on my blog right? My followers are going to go crazy.”

And then the girls are heading off to the next thing that’s caught their eye, and it’s back to just Jean and Eren.

The cleanest thing to do would be never speak of this again, but Eren’s eyes are wide, pupils blown beneath the contact lenses, and, most importantly, he appears to be speechless.

Eren was the one who initiated the kiss so Jean really can’t take credit for rendering him mute, but is the feeling of success here really any less valid than the one he gets from winning a game because Eren has got distracted and accidentally driven his character into a pond?

Regardless, Eren kissed Jean, so if he wants to back out now he’s going to have to be the one of admit he’s chicken. Jean grabs Eren’s hand, just to make sure he knows that this isn’t over just because the girls have gone, and lacing his fingers with Eren’s feels just as much like winning as any race.

And when Eren squeezes back?

Oh, it’s on.


End file.
